President Trump’s trip to Israel, which seemed like a slam dunk for Trump just weeks ago, has turned into an occasion for anxiety among congressional allies and pro-Israel activists.
A pair of high-profile missteps have marred the preparation for the trip. Trump’s revelation to the Russians of a terrorist threat from ISIS reportedly angered the Israeli intelligence officials who provided the details on the expectation it would be kept in confidence.
Additionally, the White House seems agnostic about whether the Western Wall of the ancient Jewish Temple complex is under Israeli jurisdiction — a tilt towards Palestinian negotiators that troubles supporters of Israel at home and abroad.
Some say these slips are being magnified too much.
“I think that a lot of people are reading a lot more into different policy decisions than perhaps they should,” Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told the Washington Examiner. “I can tell you that this is a president who is pro-Israel, but he’s also pro-peace.”
But Trump’s desire to broker a peace agreement between could be leading his team to avoid any statements that antagonize Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who visited the White House in May. American diplomats in Israel reportedly declined to allow Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to join Trump on a visit to the Western Wall, saying the site isn’t part of Israeli jurisdiction.
That statement comports with the United Nations Security Council resolution that the Obama team allowed to pass in December, over Trump’s criticism. The resolution most notably condemned Israeli settlement construction, but it also cast doubt on Israel’s jurisdiction over Jerusalem.
White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster compounded the Netanyahu snub by dodging a request to clarify the Trump team’s view. “That sounds like a policy question,” he told reporters.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, the point person for repudiating the UN Security Council resolution, distanced herself from McMaster. “I don’t know what the policy of the administration is, but I believe the Western Wall is part of Israel,” Haley told The Brody File. “I think that’s how we’ve always seen it and that’s how we should pursue it. I’m not real sure what happened with that issue, but I know that they’re trying to fix that and get that taken care of.”
That confusion about the wall looks like a regression to American policy in the final days of the Obama administration, to some pro-Israel lawmakers and activists.
“These statements are sort of a startling departure from statements that the administration has forecasted in the past that has [the pro-Israel] community riled up,” one House Republican, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Washington Examiner. “I would say that they’re confused, they’re disappointed.”
Meadows, who has called for McMaster to “retract” his comments, acknowledged the activists’ anxiety but defended Trump. “I don’t know that there has been a departure from a State Department standpoint on policy with this president based on where previous policy has been under the Obama administration, and that may be part of the frustration . . . but there’s still ongoing negotiations right now,” Meadows said in defense of Trump. “They’re trying to find peace.”
For Democrats, there’s a little bit of schadenfreude in the controversy, which appears to them to vindicate former President Barack Obama’s policies.
“The Israelis want to like Trump because the Israeli government did not like Obama, but I think they’re going to find, and you’ve already seen it since he became president, that hopes that they had — expectations that they had — have been severely dimmed,” Virginia Rep. Gerald Connolly, a Democratic member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told the Washington Examiner. “I think the initial euphoria over what Trump might represent is now really diminished with the normal realities that affect anybody who sits in the Oval Office when it comes to Middle East peace.”
Connolly suggested that the Western Wall flap marked a break even from the Obama administration’s policies, however. and Trump’s menu of gestures for reassuring Netanyahu could be limited by the nascent peace talks.
“There’s a real potential for the Israelis to be disappointed with what comes out of this trip,” another House Republican told the Washington Examiner.
